Img who we are

Happy people do better work.

The fact that our folks feel happy, fulfilled and enjoy coming to work means they show up every day with their best, most authentic selves. It all adds up to a culture ready and willing to build relationships and go the extra mile for the brands and clients we work with every day.

To ensure our culture stays informed and welcoming to all Firehouse formed a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging team. Their mission is to help shape agency policies, review creative work to ensure culturally insensitive work is never published, and report on the agency’s progress. (You can read our annual report and our Racial Equity Policy Statement here.)

our leadership

Steve Smith

CEO

Steve is advertising’s version of a Swiss Army knife. He went through the creative sequence at UT Austin and initially tried his hand at copywriting. He then had careers of over a decade each as both an account guy and a strategic planner. Since joining Firehouse in 2006, Steve has built and shepherded the growth of Firehouse's media and strategy disciplines to be one of the most awarded in Dallas. In fact, his idea to combine our planning, media, PR and social media disciplines into a single strategic team was not only ahead of its time, it helped Firehouse earn AdAge’s Southwest Small Agency of the Year in 2010. Today he draws on all of these diverse skillsets to effectively run Firehouse as Chief Executive Officer. Steve also serves as the agency's unofficial bartender and resident foodie.

Tripp Westbrook

President/CCO

Prior to becoming Firehouse’s Executive Creative Director in 2007, Tripp’s award-winning career included stops at The Martin Agency, Riney & Partners, Fallon NYC and GSD&M, working on celebrated brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Wrangler Jeans, United Airlines, Time Magazine and Land Rover, to name a few. Over the years, Tripp has collected Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, EFFIE Awards and produced one of USA Today’s Top 100 Super Bowl Commercials of all time. Under his creative leadership, Firehouse has been recognized by The One Show, The Webbie Awards, Communication Arts, The OBIES and was named AdAge’s Southwest Small Agency of the Year in 2010. Tripp also spends some of his spare time restoring old Land Rovers, and then paying someone else to do it correctly.

Erica Baker

Partner | Group Account Director

When we say that Erica is a driven, motivated and organized person, we’re not just blowing smoke. She’s the kind of person who makes normally driven and organized people feel like sofa-surfing slackers. From running multi-unit brands like Texas Dairy Queen, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Baxter Auto to translating brand strategies across national, local and promotional levels, she does it all with the style, grace, flexibility and work ethic you’d expect from a former professional ballet dancer. In fact, she may be the only person at Firehouse who can, quite literally, bend over backwards for our clients.

Megan Ward

Partner | Director of Operations

Megan has 15 years experience and a wealth of knowledge and expertise in production for print, OOH, digital and broadcast. Megan also led the charge in developing and implementing a new agency process for Firehouse that allows for efficiencies to better manage client projects. But on top of being the most organized person in the agency, Megan is also the keeper of the Firehouse culture, helping to meticulously plan every major event we’ve had since the day she arrived.

Phil Brito

Director of Project Management

Phil has 11 years of experience and expertise in production for print, OOH, digital and broadcast. But Phil's secret strength is his innate ability to see the future. He's an incredibly intuitive team player, always sensing what the team, and our clients, might need. On top of making sure the trains run on time and that our work gets done and done well, Phil is always there to raise his hand, jump in, volunteer and add value. He's also the first to ask if a client or co-worker needs anything. At all. He cares about Firehouse like an owner and is selfless in his dedication to making sure our people, not just processes, are working well for every client project.

Emily Black

Principal | Group Account Director

When you can draw upon 20+ years of advertising and marketing experience like Emily can, there’s virtually no challenge she hasn’t faced. Whether it’s her extensive CPG, retail or B2B experience on both the agency and brand side, or her passion for understanding consumer attitudes and behaviors, Emily’s ability to navigate her clients to great success is a hallmark of her impressive career. Less impressive, however, is her musical ability. This is plainly evidenced by her acoustically talented husband and two children relegating her to tambourine duty during family jam sessions.

Tara Hays

Account Director

Tara believes every project can be improved with a well-formatted spreadsheet and color-coding system—that love of organization probably has something to do with being an Air Force brat. Given her impressive amount of agency- and client-side experience, she brings a much-welcomed balanced perspective to whatever you put in front of her. Brands like Nike, Lennox, The United Methodist Church and AmeriSourceBergen have benefited greatly from a steady dose of Tara. Outside of the ad world, Tara is prone to fits of adventurous travel (again, Air Force brat) and selflessly donating her time to cancer patients in need of a supportive sounding board.

Marla Kyriakos

Controller

Since beginning her career in the audit department of a Big 4 public accounting firm, Marla has gone on to become a CPA and held a number of positions as both financial controller and consultant. And while she insists that “being boring is an amazing trait” for her position, it’s hard to reconcile that with her participating multiple times as a cyclist in the “Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred” bike race. Every summer. In Texas. Somehow also being a “cat and crossword puzzle lover” doesn’t seem to balance that one out.

Krista McCrimmon

Group Creative Director

Krista is a committed extrovert who leverages her big personality and bold perspective to craft extraordinarily creative and compelling work. In fact, she’s spent her career of 20+ years creating remarkable and highly successful advertising for clients like American Airlines, Texas Tourism, Marriott Hotels, Nationwide Insurance, Toyota, Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group and many more.

But don't let her penchant for taking risks, pushing boundaries and never settling (creatively speaking, of course), fool you. More than anything, Krista is a champion of awareness, inclusivity, acceptance and empathy for people who don’t always have a voice of their own. In other words, her own brand of "softie."

Carlos Flores

Creative Director / Art Director

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Jason Heatherly

Design Director

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Badge Stamp Firehouse
In case you were wondering

All the stuff we do.

  • Advertising
  • Brand Architecture
  • Media Planning & Buying
  • Brand Strategy
  • SEO/SEM
  • Brand Identity
  • Influencer Strategy & Management
  • Consumer Research
  • Content Creation
  • Social Media Strategy & Management
  • Organic & Paid Search
  • Data & Analytics

Our Client Experience

Who we’ve done it for.

  • Toyota Website 2
  • Lennox Website 2
  • Baxter Website 2
  • Interstate Batteries Website 2
  • Logo stryker 2x
  • Dairy Queen Website 2
  • Service King Website 2
  • Haggar Website 2
  • Taco Cabana Website 2
  • Logo ncacheer 2x
  • Logo happy state bank 2x
  • Wholly Guac Website 2
  • Nothing Bundt Cakes Website 2
  • Oberto Website 2
  • Wgutexas Website 2
  • Coinstar Website 2
  • Nokia Website 2
  • Cinionic V2 Website 2
  • Dallas Mavericks Website 2
  • Logo texas wesleyan university 2x

Download our full category experience.

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Client Testimonials

“Firehouse developed a strategy that breaks from so much of the usual crap in our category. The work they’ve done gets away from being purely functional and speaks to our customers on an emotional level. Not easy in the HVAC world.”

Kim McGill, Vice President of Marketing, Lennox Residential

“This is a team I can count on for anything. Their ability to juggle 23 car dealerships across multiple OEMs is a testament to their organization, integration, communication and process."

Julia Doria, Chief Marketing Officer, Baxter Auto Group

“From day one I was blown away with the quality of the thinking, the staff, the ideas… Firehouse really helped push us to a great place.”

Tyler Reeves, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer, Interstate Batteries

“Their collaborative spirit is something we were looking for. We wanted a team that felt like they were a part of Service King.”

Gregg Murry, Vice President of Advertising, Service King Collision Repair

“We’ve come to them for everything from websites, to redesigning product line, to consumer research studies…and they deliver. Time and time again.”

Donnie Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer, Nothing Bundt Cakes

“The ideas that Firehouse consistently presents to us make me excited to go to work every day.”

Nichole Davis, Director, Haggar Clothing Co.

“Firehouse was fantastic at identifying an emotional insight that became the foundation for a major strategic overhaul for our brand.”

Gregory Yahn, Vice President of Marketing, Oberto Specialty Meats

“The first campaign they did for us, I can still remember, it gave me goosebumps. Go on Instagram and search #theworkisworthit. We were blown away.”

Jenni Parrish, Executive Director of Marketing & Communications, National Cheerleaders Association